Will Alibaba’s App Information Leakage Trigger Strict Supervision and Regulation on Mobile Games?

alibaba

(By You Yunting) “疯狂来往” App, an in-game of China’s leading e-commerce Alibaba(NYSE: BABA)’s Messaging App Laiwang, was blamed for user’s private data leakage, according to the news. “疯狂来往” App (pronounced as “Feng Kuang Lai Wang”) was made to record players as one persons holds up a mobile device displaying words and others use gestures to provide clues to an answer, a little like guessing game. Considering that “疯狂来往”App is an interactive game among friends and acquaintances, many of the players were dressed rather casually when caught on the videos and some videos shows users in their underwear or naked while playing the game at home with family or friends. Worsen the videos also involved private information of teenagers under eighteen. Regardless of its sharing features into social networking websites such as Wechat and Qzone, some sharing videos were also automatically stored on Youku.com, a video website, which anyone can read online.

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China’s Latest Laws and Regulations in January 2013 (II)

VI. Thirteen Departments Jointly Issued Opinions on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Inventors of Service Inventions.

On January 1, 2013, thirteen departments, including the State Intellectual Property Office, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly published the Several Opinions on Further Improving the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Inventors of Service Inventions to Promote the Implementation of Intellectual Property (the “Opinions”). The Opinions aim to protect the legal rights and interests of the inventors of the service inventions, particularly in state-owned enterprises, public institutions, and army units.

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MOC Issues New Rule for Trade Secret Protection in Commercial Franchise

Recently, the Ministry of Commerce released the revised “Measures for information disclosure of commercial franchising” (the “Measures”) which will come into effect from 1st April. Compared with the past regulation, the most attractive part is the confidentiality responsibility of the franchisee, and the new regulation consists two main parts as follows(the image today is the logo of McDonald’s and Subway, the major franchisors in China):

1, The franchisee shall not disclose or improper use any trade secret accessed to him/her when negotiating on the agreement, no matter whether the agreement is concluded or not;

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